What was a “Sundown Town”?

1. LI: Students will understand major changes in the lives of African-Americans after the end of Reconstruction. Do Now: How do you think racism affected the lives of African-Americans after Reconstruction?

2. What was a “Sundown Town”?

3. What is convict lease? 13th Amendment: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, nor any place subject to their jurisdiction."

4. What is lynching? What justifications were given for lynchings?

6. Bennie Simmons, alive, soaked in coal oil before being set on fire.  June 13, 1913. Anadarko, Oklahoma.

7. Joseph Richardson was removed from the county jail in Leitchfield by a mob and lynched on the public square at 1:00 a.m. on September 26, 1913. The mob thought he had assaulted an 11 year old white girl named Ree Goff. Afterwards, the crowd realized that he had simply bumped into her.

8. Lynching of African American male. 1960 McDuffie County, Georgia.

9. Badly beaten corpse of William Brooks, his clothes ripped and torn, a branch fastened to his left leg. July 22, 1901 Elkins, West Virginia

10. California

11. Unidentified corpse of badly beaten white male in shredded clothes hanging from rope stretched over unpaved street. 1900. Virginia City, Montana

12. The bludgeoned body of an African American male, propped in a rocking chair, blood splattered clothes, white and dark paint applied to the face and head, shadow of man using rod to prop up the victims head. Circa 1900, location unknown.

13. The lynching of James Clark. July 11, 1926, Eau Gallie, Florida

14. The lynching of unidentified African American male, naked lower body, bloodied, bullet holes.Circa 1910, location unknown.

16. The lynching of Garfield Burley and Curtis Brown. October 8, 1902 Newbern, Tennessee.

17. The lynching of George Meadows. January 15, 1889 Pratt Mines, Alabama.

18. The lynching of Will Moore. May 20, 1919 Ten Mile, Mississippi

19. The lynching of Lee Hall, his body hung from a tree, bullet hole in head, ears cut off. February 7, 1903, Wrightsville, Georgia

20. The lynching of Richard Dillon. March 7, 1904, Minnesota.

21. Charred corpse of Jesse Washington, 17 years old, suspended from utility pole.May 16, 1916, Robinson, Texas. Written on back of postcard: This is the Barbeque we had last night, my picture is to the left with a cross over it, your son Joe.

23. The barefoot corpse of Laura Nelson. May 25, 1911 Okemah, Oklahoma.

25. The corpses of Ernest Harrison, Sam Reed, and Frank Howard hanging from a rafter in a sawmill.  September 11, 1911, Wickliffe, Kentucky

26. The lynching of Fred Ingraham and James Green. April 3, 1883, Hastings, Nebraska.

28. Unidentified lynching of an African American male.  1908. Oxford, Georgia.

29. 1890, Arkansas

30. The victim of this mob is forced to pose on a buggy for the camera. The handcuffs bite into his inflamed lower arms. He stares directly into the camera lens with undiminished dignity. The three cards depicting the torture and hanging of this man were at one time laced together with a twisted purple thread, so as to unfold like a map.

31. The lynching of Virgil Jones, Robert Jones, Thomas Jones, and Joseph Riley. July 31, 1908, Russellville, Kentucky.

32. The lynching of Charles Mitchell, his body hanging from a tree in a courthouse yard.June 4, 1897, Urbana, Ohio.

33. The lynching of Dick Robinson and a man named Thompson. October 6, 1906, Pritchard Station, Alabama.

34. Lynching of white male, his body hung from a bridge. 1910, location unknown.

36. Lynching of an unidentified African American male, onlookers including young boys. September 3, 1915 Alabama.

37. The lynching of Leo Frank. August 17, 1915, Marietta, Georgia. He was convicted of murdering a 14 year old girl who worked in his pencil factory. He spent 2 years in jail and was finally abducted by a mob and lynched. He was found to be innocent and pardoned in 1985.

38. John Richards. January 12, 1916 Goldsboro, North Carolina.

41. The lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. August 7, 1930, Marion, Indiana.

42. The burning corpse of William Brown.September 28, 1919, Omaha, Nebraska Brown was accused of molesting a white girl. When police arrested him, a mob formed which ignored orders that they disperse. When Mayor Edward P. Smith pleaded for calm, the mob hung him to a trolley pole, and nearly killed before police were able to cut him down. The rampaging mob set the courthouse prison on fire and seized Brown. He was hung from a lamppost, mutilated, and his body riddled with bullets, then burned. Four other people were killed and fifty wounded before troops were able to restore order.

43. The lynching of Lige Daniels. August 3, 1920 Center, Texas

44. Six black circus workers, accused of assaulting a white girl, were dragged from their cells in a Duluth, Minnesota, jail by a mob of five thousand people. Twelve policemen were injured during the attack. In a trial set up by the mob leaders, three of the suspects were "found not guilty." The three "found guilty" were hanged. A subsequent investigation by the civic authorities proved that none of the murdered men could have participated in the assault.

46. The corpses of George and Ed Silsbee. January 20, 1900.  Fort Scott, Kansas

48. The lynching of John (Jack) Holmes. November 26, 1933, San Jose, California.

49. The corpses of five African American males, Nease Gillepsie John Gillepsie "Jack" Dillingham Henry Lee George Irwin  August 6, 1906.  Salisbury, North Carolina.

50. The lynching of Will James. November 11, 1909. Cairo, Illinois